Rachael McCallum's Unicorn Spew,

Rachael McCallum's UnicornSpew ~The online journal of Artness as-it-happens.


Wednesday 19 September 2012

This piece below, #1, was the first pretty selection of clay remnants I found that started me on this method. It was so SIMPLE! I was having difficulty making compositions that didnt betray the history of rearranging. Clay seems to record everything. Every little hesitation, change of mind or overdoing. Serendipity was the soloution. As it was the first, I thought about it the longest, which meant I had alot of options by the time it came to glazing day. I was so nervous about overdoing it with too much strong coloured glaze that I applied it generally quite thinly. The excellent thing about firing at a low temperature meant that the clay isn't too vitrified to inhale glaze; and exposed areas absorb glazes just as easily as after bisqued. I can keep painting, if necessary.

Ceramic Painting #1, approx; 30x18x10cm. Earthenware clay glazed at 1080
I think I will revisit this work when I am feeling fresh and finish it. One of the ideas I revisit often; paint the centre column with a bright glassy red, to combat the dryness of the grey on the left and make the acid yellow dimple at the top beam its colour. The window on the left is nice I think, dry and grainy with its Iron and chrome. The centre column is the weakness of the piece. The shape is strong and needs a colour that is equally important. That's probably why I feel red is good. Shiny surface also seem to reveal form well, and the curvature of the column is important to the balance of the two weighted hips of the piece. For similar harmony reasons I think it should be shiny, it just seems right. But the problem of red and shiny glaze is that people read into it like blood or pain or in this case dangerously like a warped inverted vagina. And that kind of idea is distracting and irrelevant. Maybe one day I will make representational pieces with concept behind them, but not just yet. I want to learn and understand how to finish pieces at the moment, and the only I can do that is if I keep making and pondering their quality.